State-of-the-art technologies to be put to test in Solar Impulse 2 flight around the world

Engineers working as part of the Solar Impulse 2 project say they hope to use the mission to fly the world's first solar powered circumnavigate the globe to test cutting edge technologies to the limit.

Solar Impulse 2 engineers will deploy a mobile hangar to cool and protect the unique aircraft in the event of unscheduled stops or a lack of infrastructure. Courtesy Stefatou / Solar Impulse

Engineers working on the Solar Impulse 2 hope to test cutting-edge technologies to the limit when the plane departs from Abu Dhabi in its bid to complete the first round-the-world solar-powered flight.

Staff from the Swiss company ABB will be working alongside the pilots in monitoring the state-of-the-art green technology used in the flight.

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi renewable energy company, is the host of the project and shares Solar Impulse's long-term commitment to reinforcing the importance of innovation in achieving sustainable development. Three ABB engineers will be embedded in the Solar Impulse 2 project, attempting to fly the 2,300-kilogram aircraft entirely powered by lightweight solar panels across two oceans, to a dozen cities, and travel about 40,000 kilometres.

“The project uses new technologies that could be implemented in various ways,” said Tamara Tursijan, an ABB engineer, who is part of the vast ground team accompanying the mission in a separate plane.

“For example the pilot flies in an unpressurised cabin. When he’s 9,000 metres high, it’s minus 40 degrees outside so we’ve had to make the cabin out of special insulating foam which is very light. So these materials are something that can certainly be used again.”

Ms Tursijan is part of a team of 20 masterminding the erection of a vast 10,000 cubic metre tent-like mobile aircraft hangar used to cool and protect the unique aircraft in the event of unscheduled stops or a lack of infrastructure.

She said that the engineers will employ powerful fans to inflate the double-skinned balloon-like hangar which protects the plane from winds, rain, heat and dust. Putting the tent up takes about five hours.

“The plane has to be light so that it can hold its own weight with a small amount of energy,” she said. “The problem is that if we have wind or a sandstorm, for example, then we need the mobile hangar to protect the plane. Also the solar panels are on the top of the plane so it needs to be kept clean and protected from dirt and sand.

“An additional problem for the plane is too high temperatures during the day, because it is made out of carbon fibre and the connections between different carbon fibre parts cannot stand very high temperatures.”

However, despite the cutting-edge thinking going into the project, Ms Tursijan said that the chances of seeing commercially viable solar flights in the near future are low.

“Will we have solar planes in 10 years? I don’t think so. But there’s a different point to this project,” she said. “This is more about communicating to the world that solar technology is not something out of science fiction. It is being used today and it can be very powerful.”

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